The Burning Tower
by ashenrenee
Summary: She met him in the library during her fifth year. She had, of course, known of him before then, he was quite popular and everyone knew who he was. Not only was he well liked by the majority of the students but he was also known for the same thing she was. Pureblood. Sacred Twenty Eight. Her parents still would have deemed him unacceptable. One Shot!


**Hello loves! So this is something that I've been working on for a while. It was completed MONTHS ago but I had to make a few very serious edits and I put it off forever and tonight I finally decided to suck it up and rewrite the entire damn thing. And so I present you with this long overdue one shot and hope that you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, this is JK Rowling's sandbox, I'm just building castles.**

 **Thank you for reading and please remember to feed the magical review eating fairy!**

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Pansy had been having the dream since she was a child. She lived in a lavish tower, surrounded by pretty things. Beautiful dresses, sparkling jewels, silk and diamonds and gold. She wanted for nothing, books, toys, clothes, jewelry were hers to demand and claim at will; but she could never leave. The tower had no door, and only one small window that sometimes had bars and sometimes did not.

It always started out so pleasant, so wonderful, that she never saw the danger coming until it was too late. The tower would catch fire, and she would be trapped. Terrified, she would rush to the window and stare out across the open field that surrounded her and she would see him there, her father, watching her tower burn down around her.

She would call out to him and he would continue to stare, unblinking, and she would beg him to help her, to save her, but he never would. He would watch and listen to her scream for help as the flames licked at her arms and legs. He would turn away as the tower collapsed around her and she would wake up breathing heavily and drenched in sweat.

When she was thirteen the man changed, turning from her father to Draco, which somehow made the dream seem even worse. More frightening somehow. He never tried to save her either. After a few years Pansy began to take it as a sign, that no one would be able to rescue her from the nightmare that was her life. Not from her parents, who drank too much and hated themselves and each other. Not from her loneliness, or from never knowing who was her friend because she was Pansy Parkinson and who was her friend because she was _Pansy_.

Pansy was fifteen when the dream changed again. She met him in the library during her fifth year. She had, of course, known of him before then, he was quite popular and everyone knew who he was. Not only was he well liked by the majority of the students but he was also known for the same thing she was. Pureblood. Sacred Twenty Eight.

Her parents still would have deemed him unacceptable. Pureblood or not, the Weasleys didn't have enough money for the Parkinsons to pay them any mind.

It had surprised her that day, when he approached her for the first time, to see him without his twin. She had never seen one without the other and she wondered what kind of trouble they were up to. She had been sitting alone at one of the library tables, working on an essay for History of Magic, when he'd sat down in the chair across from her, a mischievous grin on his face.

"My brother and I would like to enlist your help with something Miss Parkinson," he said smoothly, eyes twinkling. Pansy eyed him suspiciously. "We are aware that you are not fond of our dear younger brother and we would like to give you the opportunity to participate in a prank to humiliate him."

"Why?" she asked, quirking a brow at him. The twin, which one it was she had no idea, chuckled.

"Ickle Ronnikens has managed to thoroughly piss us off and we'd like to similarly annoy him, but he's always with Harry or Hermione and we need someone to distract them at breakfast tomorrow so that we can slip something into Ron's pumpkin juice without anyone noticing," he explained. Pansy set down the quill she was holding and crossed her arms over her chest as she studied him critically for a moment.

He was, she had to admit, very handsome. Secretly Pansy had always envied his sister for her gorgeous copper hair and his was no different. He had good bone structure, a strong jaw, a straight nose, high cheekbones. His smile was crooked but his teeth were not and that was something Pansy could admire in a person. Freckles, bad fashion sense, and general Weasleyness aside, Pansy couldn't help but be attracted to him. And the clear, crystal blue of his eyes didn't hurt his appearance any. They were gorgeous, and she was sure that she could get lost in them if she let herself.

Maybe that was why she had agreed. "Sure, I can find some time to insult the trio of idiots," she said before she could stop herself. His smile widened.

"Brilliant," he said, standing up to leave. She tried to ignore the small pang of disappointment she felt at seeing him go.

"Which one are you?" she asked curiously. He raised an eyebrow at the question and she fought off the blush she knew wanted to rise to the surface.

"Fred," he answered. Pansy couldn't help the way that her nose wrinkled in distaste at the name. It was so... _common_. But then, she supposed, so was he. He laughed at her expression, clearly not offended by her opinion about his name, before turning on his heel and walking away.

She pretended not to stare at his arse as he went.

The next morning she did what Fred had asked of her. She walked right up to the Gryffindor table and started as fight with Harry Potter and his bumbling sidekicks. She timed it perfectly to coincide with Fred and George's arrival, and the second she saw them slip a vial of something into Ron's pumpkin juice she sneered at the three people she hated most in her year and told them that none of them were worth her time before striding away.

By the time she reached the Slytherin table Ron had broken out into large, painful looking boils that, to the delight of the Gryffindors, could sing in beautiful baritone voices. She did her best to keep her smile contained, but she caught Fred's eye from across the hall and couldn't quite stop the little grin that graced her features.

Later that day, when they were safely out of the hearing range of their housemates, Blaise had asked her if she'd helped the twins with their plot against Ron. His eyes had studied her carefully as she scrambled to think of something to say.

"Why would you think that?" she asked. His eyes narrowed.

"Please," he scoffed. "You're my best friend, I know everything about you. You marched up to the Gryffindor table this morning – without provocation – and started berating Potter and his two shadows and then abruptly ended the argument and walked away just before Weasley drank his tainted juice and grew a bunch of opera singing boils," he reminded her. "And don't think I didn't see you smiling at one of the twins right after it happened either, I'm not blind."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Pansy said, schooling her features to look as innocent as possible. "I had nothing to do with what happened to Weasley's face, and there was no smiling."

Blaise shook his head. "There was, but if you want to live in denial I can't stop you," he said, going back to his homework.

She wouldn't realize until much later that that day had been the beginning of something wonderful. Something she'd never realized that she wanted until it happened. Something, for lack of a better word, magical.

After that day she saw him everywhere. In the library while she was studying, in the corridors between classes, out on the grounds when she spent her free time by the lake. He was always there. Late one evening, hours after curfew, she had sneaked away to the owlery to send her mother a letter and she ran into him on her way back down to the dungeons.

They stood across the corridor from one another and stared at each other for a few moments before he wordlessly offered her his arm. She'd taken it with far less suspicion that she should have and let him lead her through the school to the dungeons where he stopped directly in front of the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

At her questioning look he only smirked at her before leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to her lips and walking away. They hadn't spoken once the entire time, but it was the single most significant exchange Pansy could remember ever having with a person in her entire life.

That night neither her father, nor Draco, had starred in her nightmare. And when she cried out to Fred Weasley to save her, he had rushed forward, Gryffindor bravery on full display, and tried everything he could to get to her before the tower inevitably collapsed.

Every night from that night forward they somehow ended up in each other's company. Pansy couldn't be sure which of them was the one that was seeking the other out. Had it been her? Had it been him? Or had they just been drawn to one another like moths to flame? She didn't know. Didn't know and could not bring herself to care because every time she looked at him she was back in her burning tower and he was rescuing her.

Every night she would walk the deserted corridors with Fred and every night he would kiss her goodnight in front of the Slytherin common room. Every night the kiss would last a little longer than the night before.

They hardly ever spoke, and when they did it was to whisper things to one another that they had never dared to tell another person before.

He told her about the Burrow and she told him about her parent's manor. He'd looked at her sadly for a long moment before telling her that her life sounded really empty, lonely, and she'd just stared at him. Unable to disagree but not wanting him to see her weak.

And then he kissed her. He kissed her and before she knew it their clothes were on the floor and he was fucking her hard against the wall and she was gasping his name and begging him not to stop, to never stop. Because when Fred Weasley was inside of her she felt complete. When she was in his arms she felt loved and cherished and beautiful and he felt like _home_. She'd thought that she would go her entire life without ever knowing what home felt like and it was so new and different and _right_ that she never wanted to let him go.

They came together, gasping each other's names into the night, and it was the beginning of her destruction. That night in her dreams Fred rescued her from her tower and took her far away, and every night after that , up until he and his brother fled the school, he continued to save her.

She didn't see him again until summer. He happened across her in Diagon Alley, and she tried her best to ignore him as he followed her around _Flourish and Blots_ begging her to let him explain. She was still hurting over the way he'd left without saying goodbye to her. She lasted ten minutes before she gave in to his pleas to forgive him. He wasted no time in apparating her back to his flat and fucking her on every flat surface they could find.

It was rough, all nails and teeth and _fuck me harder_ and _never let me go_ and _I love you_. She hadn't meant to say it, not out loud, not to him. Not when he was holding her battered heart in his hands. She half expected him to stop and stare at her in horror, but he just kept fucking her. Kept thrusting into her with a new kind of determination that had her careening over the edge of ecstasy. She came with his name on her lips, feeling him spill inside of her as he repeated her words back to her. _I love you._

When the summer ended Pansy reluctantly returned to Hogwarts. They wrote to each other, exchanging stories about how dull their lives were when they were apart. He told her about the shop and George and she recounted whatever gossip she managed to collect.

She missed him, and when Christmas break arrived she spent it in a series of stolen moments. She went back to Hogwarts and she missed him until Easter when the process started again. Stolen moments, Hogwarts, missing one another until summer came again.

The world changed. It became darker, more frightening. Their love making changed, from hard and fast, to slow and steady. Screams turned to sighs, _more more more_ and _harder, faster, please_ turned into whispered endearments that neither of them ever thought they would say. It became _I'll love you forever_ and _there will never be anyone else_ and _don't leave me_.

George watched them fall even deeper in love and Pansy saw the flickers of jealousy in his gaze. She knew that he wanted what they had, but a love like theirs was a once in a thousand lifetimes kind of love.

She went back to school. Her nightmares returned, only Fred had stopped trying to save her. In her dreams he knew about the first years she had tortured to save herself from being tortured. In her dreams he hated her.

When Christmas came Fred was in hiding but he sneaked away to see her, just once, one last time before it all came crashing down around them. They lost themselves in each other. It was soft and gentle and tasted like goodbye. It was _we'll be together again_ and _forever baby, I promise_. And then it was three weeks later and she was a week late and throwing up.

She told Blaise and he cast a charm and said a word that changed her world forever. _Pregnant_. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath but she refused to cry. Fred would take care of her, she knew he would, and everything would be okay. She sent him an owl but he didn't reply, and then one night during Potterwatch she heard him use her code name. He told her that he loved her and promised that they would be together again. She held onto that promise like a lifeline.

Easter came and she wasn't allowed to leave the castle. Daphne cast a glamour over the bump that was starting to show and Pansy prayed for the first time in her life. For the war to be over, for Fred to come and save her. To save them.

Time went by so slowly that Pansy often wondered if it was moving at all. She was losing hope. She was losing hope and then Potter was there, in the castle. And then _Fred_ was in the castle and Pansy was afraid. Afraid because she knew that there would be a battle, that Fred would fight, and she didn't want him to fight. She didn't want anyone to fight.

She heard the Dark Lord ask for them to hand Potter over and she couldn't understand why no one made a move to grab him. She couldn't help but to think that if they handed him over it would end and then she could run away with her love and everything would be okay.

But then she was being escorted out of the Great Hall with the rest of her house. Blaise supporting her as they passed her lover, who wouldn't meet her eyes. She spent the battle waiting in fear. Daphne was so distraught that the glamour on Pansy's stomach broke and her bump was revealed.

And then it was over. It was over and they were released and brought to the Great Hall where Pansy found George crying over Fred's body. Her Fred. The father of her child. Gone.

She was sobbing, sobbing and crying and screaming and people were staring at her and Blaise's arms around her waist were the only thing keeping her from falling to her knees but she didn't care. She didn't care because love of her life was _dead_. Because there would be no forever. It was over, her entire world had collapsed, just like the tower in her nightmares.

George pulled something from his brother's pocket and stood up, making his way over to her. He took her from Blaise and held her while they both cried and his family stared at them in shock.

"He was going to give you this," George told her, handing her a small velvet box. "He loved you so much."

She opened the box and let out a broken wail at the sight of a simple but elegant diamond ring. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in her life and she hit her knees, curling herself around her stomach and gasping at the sheer intensity of the gaping hole his absence had left in her heart.

"Pansy," Blaise murmured. "We should go, you need to rest. This isn't... You have to calm down, this much stress isn't good for the baby."

"W-what and I g-going t-to do Blaise?" Pansy sobbed. "He's gone. He- He was _ev-everything_ and now he's _gone_."

"You're going to come home with us," Molly Weasley said, her tear stained face twisted into a strange combination of kindness and grief. "We'll take care of you, _both_ of you. You're family now." The red haired matriarch hurried forward and pulled Pansy into a warm embrace, shocking the young witch into silence.

They took her home, to the Burrow, and helped her get back on her feet. She had her baby, a beautiful little girl with her father's copper hair and blue eyes and her mother's pug nose. She named her Sloan, and she raised her to be strong like her name, a warrior like her father.

Sloan never had nightmares of a burning tower, she grew up loved and did not fear abandonment. She was told the story of her parents, of their love that was a once in a thousand lifetimes kind of love. She was a Gryffindor and her mother was proud.

Pansy Parkinson live to be one hundred and eighty two. She taught Arithmancy at Hogwarts for many years. One night she went for a walk in the castle and she ran into Fred, just as handsome as he had been the day she met him. He offered her his arm and she took it without a word, letting him lead her home.


End file.
